By Karen Gutierrez
The Cincinnati Enquirer

June Grooms calls upon a student in an all-girls math class at Summit View Middle School. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

INDEPENDENCE - Girls, girls, girls.

They spray themselves with 10 pounds of "stinky" perfume. They don't say much during group activities. Worst of all, they look really good in skirts.

So say some of the guys at Summit View Middle School, which is experimenting this year with a few separate classes for boys and girls.

So far, it's working well, teachers and students say. Fewer distractions in class, more participation by all. It's a trend catching on nationally, with the federal government encouraging public schools to try gender separation.

"I stay on task instead of looking at girls now and then," says Jimmy Wulfeck, an eighth-grader at Summit View.

The girls also see advantages.

"You can express yourself more, without being embarrassed," says Heather Waller, 14. Around boys, "You're afraid you'll feel stupid if you get the answer wrong."

The different learning styles of boys and girls are among the reasons gender separation is catching on. Girls have more sensitive hearing than boys, for example, so loud teaching is less effective with them, says the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.

Nationwide, 24 public schools separate genders in all classes, up from three in 1993, according to the association.

In Hyde Park, Withrow University High School is one of the 24. In Northern Kentucky, Newport Middle School and Two Rivers Middle School in Covington are trying same-sex classes in some subjects.

At Summit View, Principal David Johnstone was intrigued by the research. So this fall, an advanced math class for eighth-graders was separated by sex, and seventh-graders were separated for language arts and math.

"You need to pull out all the stops to motivate boys and girls at this age," says Judy New, a seventh-grade language arts teacher at Summit View. Separating the classes has allowed her to tailor assignments to her students' interests.

Her boys' class, for instance, is reading Hatchet, a novel about a boy who survives being stranded in the wilderness. Her girls are reading Catherine, called Birdy, about a girl in medieval times.

New says she has fewer discipline problems this year due to the separation.

"It has kind of revitalized my teaching," she says.

On a recent morning, the vibes in the boys' and girls' math classes were markedly different.

In one class, led by Lee Turner, eighth-grade girls sat quietly, playing a math-related version of bingo. When Turner gave the correct answers, the girls would murmur, "yay" or "I got it wrong," in tones that barely reached their neighbors.

Meanwhile, down the hall, teacher Maxine Lux was having boys graph equations on individual white boards. It was a scene of controlled chaos. Students shouted their answers and jumped up to share their work.

Steven DiTrapani, 13, finished early and started drawing football diagrams on his board.

"You have the offensive line here, the tight end here...."

Despite the noise, it was clear the boys were learning. After writing equations on the board, Lux asked, "What do these have in common?

"They all have an absolute value in them!" someone called out.

Yes. Score.

E-mail kgutierrez@enquirer.com